`Faust' No Rock Opera

Excess From Morrissey

Skill Of Lester Young

September 21, 1995|By ROGER CATLIN; Courant Rock Critic

* POP / ROCK

SOUTHPAW GRAMMAR

Morrissey

Reprise Records

In England, they're making a big deal of the fact that Morrissey has changed record labels, and the grandiose changes on this debut for English RCA is in tradition with excesses on that label dating back to David Bowie and Elvis Presley.

In the States, the morose crooner is still on Reprise, so his outlook represents nothing more than sheer excess for its own sake. Big, overblown, orchestral eight-minute tracks; another song that begins with a drum solo; eventually, a 10-minute capper with sawing guitars that seems to go on and on, longer than the coda to ``Hey Jude'' (to an eventually abrupt ending), as if to turn these eight songs from an EP length to barely a full album length of about 45 minutes.

Despite all that, Morrissey is still in pretty good form. Using the two guitarists from his last band, together with the drummer from the ``Your Arsenal'' days, the sound is assured and clamoring. Morrissey's haughty lyrics are still quite amusing. And while he might not change the face of rock as his old band may have, he does a lot toward sheer entertainment.